Petitioners Joshua Fennell and Benjamin Gorsuch, free men of color, recount that the late Amos Ogden bequeathed their respective wives and children to two legatees for specified terms of years, after which the women and their offspring were to be freed. The estate's executor (and a legatee), also named Amos Ogden, took possession of the slaves. After a year and a day, Ogden, in front of witnesses, offered Margarette and her two children as "a free gift" to petitioner Fennell, the husband and father of said slaves. Ogden gave Charlotte and her children to another legatee, Sarah Burket, who manumitted them. The petitioners state that the women and their offspring "have enjoyed their freedom for many years, without any claim of ownership on the part of the said exr. or any other, Viz for about 8 years; and that they are and of right ought to be free." Fennell and Gorsuch ask the court not to order appraisement or sale of their spouses and families, who "have been unlawfully seized and imprisoned by the said Amos Ogden."
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Repository: Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland
